WATCH: AHL Phantoms score three times in first 36 seconds of game
The American Hockey League's Lehigh Valley Phantoms scored three times in the first 36 seconds of their game against the Binghamton Senators.
By
Chris Peters
•
2 min read
Depending on your rooting interest, this was either the best or worst start to a hockey game that you’ve ever seen. For the impartial observer, it is probably the most bizarre.
The Binghamton Senators, American Hockey League affiliate of the Ottawa Senators took on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Philadelphia Flyers’ farm club, and within the first 36 seconds of the game there were three goals. All of those goals belonged to the Phantoms.
Lehigh Valley chased Sens goaltender Andrew Hammond by putting the first three shots of the game past him in a span of 21 seconds.
First it was Phantoms forward Petr Straka striking just 15 seconds into the game. Occasional Flyers callup Jason Akeson put one past Hammond just 12 seconds later. After that, it only took nine seconds for Andrew Gordon to get down the ice and notch his second point of the game with a goal at the 36 second mark of the period.
Here's a look at how it all transpired:
It was that last one that was a real clunker as Gordon's shot was just basically throwing it on net and it found its way through Hammond.
With that, Hammond left the game and was replaced by Scott Greenham. His closing stat line for the game: 0:36 in net, 3 SA, 0 SVS, 3 GA. His goals-against average for the game ended up as a cartoonish 300.00. That is THREE HUNDRED POINT ZERO ZERO.
The fastest three goals in an AHL game according to the AHL was 20 seconds, but that was shared between opponents – the Springfield Falcons and Worcester IceCats in 1997. Lehigh did it in 21 seconds on its own.
The NHL record for fastest three goals scored by one team is actually 20 seconds, set by Boston in 1971. The Phantoms can say they collectively tied the great feat by Bill Mosienko of the Chicago Blackhawks who had the fastest hat trick in NHL history in 1952.
It was a tough start for Hammond, who was signed by the Senators as a college free agent. He has a .907 save percentage this season for Binghamton. He’s appeared in one game for Ottawa so far in his young career. He spent 35 minutes between the pipes last season and made 11 saves.
So the good news is, he has a 300.00 goals-against average for one 36-second span in the AHL, but his career GAA in the NHL is still 0.00. I’d take that tradeoff.
Lehigh Valley held on for the 5-3 win.
